Old Town Square served as Sevier County’s busiest and most important commercial center for more than a century and a half. From 1795 until 1897, Sevier County’s pioneer courthouses, jails, stocks, and gallows stood there. Over the years, many structures there, including homes, hotels, liveries, general merchandise and hardware stores, mills, jails, and courthouses, were destroyed by fires and floods. The Public Square continued as a vital area of activity until the center, affectionately called “Tea Pot Dome,” was destroyed in the 1950s for the widening of US441 and 441. Today, four areas with columns and parks symbolize the original eight corners in honor of the city and county’s past, and the square was renovated through contributions from hundreds of individuals for Sevier County’s Bicentennial in 1985 and Tennessee’s homecoming ’86 celebration.